US allies in Asia and Europe voiced support for Washington's drive to cut Iran's oil exports, although fear of self-inflicted pain is curbing enthusiasm for an embargo that Tehran says will not halt its nuclear programme.
The speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, said yesterday that the nuclear programme was also too strong to be derailed by assassinations of nuclear scientists, a day after the fourth such killing.
As a newspaper close to the clerical establishment called for retaliatory assassinations of Israeli officials, a former UN inspector said a new, almost bomb-proof plant could provide Iran enough enriched uranium for an atom bomb in just a year.
Such timetables, while Iran denies all Western charges that it even wants nuclear weapons, have added to speculation that Israel and the United States could resort to a military attack on the Islamic Republic - something an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin said was growing more likely.
After a motorcycle hitman blew up the 32-year-old engineer during the Tehran rush hour, many Iranians directed anger over the violence, and over painful economic sanctions, at the Western powers, which have hoped to turn popular sentiment against an increasingly divided ruling elite.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that those behind Wednesday's mystery killing would be punished.
Hossein Shariatmadari, whom he appointed editor-in-chief of the Kayhan newspaper, wrote: "These corrupted people are easily identifiable and readily within our reach. ... Assassinations of the Zionist regime's military men and officials are very easy."
While declining comment on allegations it carried out the bombing on Wednesday, Israel has a history of such actions and will be on the alert for possible attacks against it.
Kremlin security council head Nikolai Patrushev, close to Mr Putin, was quoted blaming Israel, which says an Iranian bomb would threaten its existence, for pushing for war.
"There is a likelihood of military escalation of the conflict, towards which Israel is pushing the Americans," he told the Interfax news agency.
Speaking to troops in Texas yesterday, US defense secretary Leon Panetta said: "We have some ideas as to who might be involved but we don't know exactly who was involved." He said Washington was "not involved in any way."
Former UN nuclear inspection chief Olli Heinonen said this week's announced start of uranium enrichment at a bunker complex could provide Iran with the ability to have enough such material for one nuclear bomb early next year - although it was not clear it would yet have the ability to build one.
A high-level team from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to visit Iran around January 28th.
Reuters